Defendant Christian Alejandro Estrella is a documented gang member belonging to the Angelino Heights Sureños, a criminal gang based in Santa Rosa, California. Having served prison time for an unspecified offense, he was paroled to Lakeport, California. On July 2, 2018, he visited the Lakeport Police Department to register as a convicted gang member, as required by Penal Code §186.30. When Officer Tyler Trouette, Lakeport P.D.’s gang specialist and a member of the Lake County Gang Task Force, was notified that there was a new gang member in their city, he “familiarized himself” with Estrella’s criminal history. 

On July 3, the day after Estrella registered, Officer Trouette visited Estrella at his home, where they discussed the conditions of his parole, such as not associating with a gang and not wearing gang attire. It was specifically mentioned that Estrella was not to wear an Oakland Athletics baseball cap. This is because, as both Estrella and Officer Trouette knew, the A’s baseball cap is commonly worn by members of the Angelino Heights Sureños because, to members of the gang, the “A” on the hat signifies “Angelino,” as opposed to “Athletics.”  

Officer Trouette subsequently made periodic contact with Estrella’s parole officer, discussing the terms and conditions of Estrella’s parole as well as his progress or lack thereof. In April 2019, 10 months after Estrella’s parole began, Estrella’s parole officer told Officer Trouette that Estrella had committed a battery, but that he remained out of custody. Four months later, Officer Trouette was in the field with a rookie, Officer Ryan Cooley, as Cooley’s field training officer (“FTO”), when he observed Estrella standing outside his residence next to a white Honda and wearing an Oakland Athletics baseball cap. Officer Trouette decided “to check up on him and verify that he was abiding by the terms of his parole.” He apparently also wanted to discuss with him the wearing of the cap. He did not, however, inform Officer Cooley of defendant’s parole status nor of his parole search and seizure conditions because he wanted his trainee to “find the relevant information through his own investigation.”  

So, with both officers in uniform and their guns exposed, after alighting from their marked patrol vehicle, they contacted Estrella. (Estrella said in court documents that he was told to stop, while the officers testified that they merely walked up to him, raising the issue of whether Estrella had been “detained” or merely “consensually encountered.”) Officer Cooley asked Estrella what he was up to. As Officer Cooley was soon distracted radioing in their location to dispatch Officer Trouette asked Estrella about the hat, reminding him that wearing it was a violation of his parole and that he “shouldn’t be wearing [it].” Estrella claimed that it was his “work hat” and he only wore it while working on his car. Officer Cooley returned 90 seconds later, and asked Estrella for identification and whether he was on probation or parole. Volunteering his driver’s license, Estrella admitted to being on parole.  

Officer Cooley contacted dispatch again and it was confirmed that Estrella was on California state parole until 2020, and that he had registered as a convicted felon and a member of the Angelino Heights Sureños gang. Based upon his parole status, the officers searched him and his vehicle. As they began searching, Estrella informed Officer Trouette that he had a gun in the car. A loaded Ruger 9mm handgun and nine rounds of ammunition were found in the car’s center console.  

Indicted in federal court for being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1)), the trial court denied Estrella’s motion to suppress. He thereafter pled guilty and was sentenced to time served, three years of supervised release and a referral to an “alternative to incarceration” program run by the federal district court. (Oh, and he was required to forfeit the gun. Nice to know.) Estrella appealed the denial of his motion to suppress.